Golden Sun Boss Strategies

This section features alternate strategies than are listed in the walkthrough,
and also features Boss HP, how many coins they give, and how much experience
points they give. If you've got a very well described Boss Strategy, please
send it to me at gsa@comicsoft.zzn.com or post them at my forums at
http://www.nin-gaming.com/~comicsoft/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi. Also,
if you have stats on bosses, please also send them to me ASAP. Those who
contribute will be credited.

Here's a general strategy from Tim Stankiss [jedimstr@sdf.lonestar.org]:
"I found that a really easy way to beat the most bosses *excluding* saturos,
menardi, and the fusion dragon is to equip all venus djinn on Issac (or
whatever you named him). You get a power called curse that makes the spirit
of death embrace somebody. After the spirit of death embraces somebody, they
have 4 turns to live. Keep your party alive for four turns, and you win.
Works on Hydros Statue, Manticore, Kraken, the Gladiators, Toadonpa, the Storm
Lizard, and all the smaller creatures too."

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Bandits
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From MysticDragon2100: These guys give 66 EXP and 127 Gold.

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Tret Tree
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From Ben Rechter [weirdo007@hotmail.com]:
"This guy isn't that tough, so it doesn't really matter if you do him before
or after the Mercury Lighthouse.
Tret will just do a normal hit attack, while you can use your Psynergy. If
you're going well around this time, Isaac should have Ragnarok, which will be
useful. If Mia has enough Water Djinn, then she should be able to use Wish.
Ivan's best attack at this stage would be Plasma, so use that and with Garet
use Heat Wave."

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Saturos on Top of Mercury Lighthouse
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Here is Saturos' breakdown of stats:

From lotaion on the GameFAQ's message boards:
"Make sure that you have all of the Djinn up to this point, and that you're
around Level 10. Keep all of your characters healed by distributing herbs and
nuts evenly to all characters. Take in mind that Mia has slow agility and let
Isaac do some healing work. Put all of your Djinni on standby and unleash the
summons. Then use attacking Djinn like Gust, Flint and Fever.
As for attacks don't use any Psynergy with Garet, and with Ivan use Plasma."
From Flumens on the GameFAQs message boards:
"Saturos is easy this fight. Have all your Mars Djinn on Isaac (stand-by), all
your Jupiter Djinn on Garet (set), all your Venus Djinn on Ivan, and all your
Mercury Djinn on Mia. This way, Isaac and Ivan both have Cure and Mia has her
ply, making recovering from Saturos' Fireball easier. Attack with everybody
each turn with Garet using his Djinn and summoning them when they are all on
stand-by. When HP is low, cure, but be careful not to let anybody's HP drop
too low as a Fireball will finish them off. The best bet is to use Mia's Ply
every single turn. As she recovers 4 PP every turn anyway, she will never run
out. If no one was hurt, I generally healed Ivan as he is always hit by the
Fireball, and since Mia was slower than Saturos (can't remember agility or
level), she would heal after the fireball, reducing the number of people I had
to heal next turn. Healing all the time is a bit slow, but it encourages
survival. Garet should attack every turn regardless."
From Aethereal on the GameFAQs message boards:
"I beat him rather easily by equipping (and setting) the Djinni that match the
characters (i.e. Flint and Granite on Isaac, Forge and Fever on Garet, etc.).
I started by having Isaac, Garet, and Ivan cast their Assist Djinni (Granite
for defense, Forge for attack, and Breeze for resistance) and Mia used Sleet,
dealing the first dose of damage. Then I used the attacking Djinni and used
Fizz on Ivan, and always Ivan (because Saturos always does Heat Flash and then
Fireball on the first two turns). After that, unless someone was *really*
about to die (i.e. had less than 35 HP), I had everyone summon. Then I focused
on healing and casting spells such as Spire (I had yet to acquire Ragnarok by
this battle), Tundra, Plasma, and having Garet attack and use items...Mia and
Isaac assisted with the healing as well. I found the fight pretty easy as long
as Saturos didn't attack Ivan practically every round :)"

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Hydros Statue
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From Ben Rechter [weirdo007@hotmail.com]:
"By now, you should have at least two of Each Djinni, so use your summons-
Neried, Ramses, Tiamat and Atlanta. If that doesn't work, then keep using
Ragnarok, Heat wave, impact and taundra. After a while he should die so that
you can get the Lift Stone."

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Manticore
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From Ben Rechter [weirdo007@hotmail.com]:
"This guy shouldn't be too hard if you have done enough training up to here.
In the Lamakan Desert, use Reveal on the big Sand Fall and the Manticore
will be blocking a cave. Press A on it to get started.
With Ivan use Storm Ray, Ragnarok with Isaac, Ice Horn with Mia and Heat
Wave with Garet. If you want, using Summons could also be useful."

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Kraken
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Here's some information on Krarken from Aditya Durgam [adurgam777@hotmail.com]:
"I have some info on the HP power of Kraken, the water demon you encounter on
your way to Tolbi on the ship. Kraken is the fourth monster/ beast you
encounter while sailing.
-He knows Ply Well, so be carefully.
-He has approx. 2447 HP. It would be best if you used all the appropriate
summons with the respective elemental adept (Thor with Ivan, Judgment with
Isaac, etc.). I works better that way (duh)."

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Toadonpa
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From Dumont [ajdumont@sympatico.ca]:
Toadonpa has approx. 3500 HP.

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Storm Lizard
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Jarrod M: "If you want to get rid of the storm lizard quickly all you need to
do is go to Tolbi and use your lucky medals and aim for the center you'll
usually get a weapon called the "Assassin Blade" it's special abilities can
kill enemy even at full HP then get 3 of these and just go and fight him if
your lucky you can kill him in one hit with one of the blades although it may
be a glitch i couldn't tell you for sure."

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Deathbeard
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Here is information from Ben Rechter [weirdo007@hotmail.com]:
"When you find the pirate ship, go to the front of the ship and Deadbeard
will appear.
The best attacks to use are Destruct Ray with Ivan (though if you don't have
it use Tornado or Shine Plasma). With Isaac use your Ragnarok. Every turn with
Mia it would be safe to use Wish or Wish Well. With Garet
use Heat Wave.
Deadbeard will attack you will fire attacks like Fireball and Inferno.
Although if you use High Impact with Ivan about 3 times, he will use Break.
Deadbeard is and extremely tough boss, so i suggest you take a few nuts, Psy
Crystals, Water of Hermes and always try to keep Mia and Isaac alive- Isaac
to attack and Mia to heal. It could be an extremely long fight, so be
prepared."
Here's some information from UnrealBlizzard@aol.com:
"i have some info on deadbeard on Crossbone Island. When i fough him, my
characters were at level 28 (Ivan was 27). He had approxamately 6023 HP and he
liked to use Impact and Break. All my characters fell except for Mia, and i
killed him when she had 27 HP left. I just summoned the hell out of him and
then used Ragnorak with Isaac, Heat Wave and Djinni with Garet, Djinni with
Ivan, and Wish Well with Mia. Watch out, because, like most bosses, Deadbeard
attacks twice per round."

From "Chris Pestak" :
"When I fought deathbeard I used wishwell almost every turn with either my
dragoon Garet at lv 30 or White Mage Ivan. Issac's Samurai attacks are good
and don't be afraid to use his status-changing Psyenergy. The ultimate weapon,
however, against Deathbeard is by far and away Earth Summons. Regular
old 'VENUS' will do between 200-300 damage. I did over 1000 damage with
Judgement. I had Mia doing the summoning just because the other characters
were busy attacking or wishing in the well. Good Luck!"
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Saturos, Menardi, Fusion Dragon
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According to RaGiNGTDRaGoN@aol.com, The Fusion Dragon has between 5200-5300 HP.

From Paratroopa1 on the GameFAQ's message boards:
"With Ivan, do whatever you want. Some people like to use Impact on Isaac.
Myself, I prefer to use a lot of Djinni and then summon Thor to get a lot of
damage done.
Isaac should attack with the Gaia Blade, use Ragnarok, or use Djinni and then
Summon. Don't use Djinni too often or his stats will fall. Be careful."

From TennisPro6988@aol.com:
"Start out with all the earth Djinni on Isaac, all the Fire Djinni on Garet,
etc. Go into battle and use all the defensive djinni first. The main thing in
this fight is to get rid of Saturos. His attacks will do at least 100 to all
your people, while Menardi just heals and does 40 damage (if your level 25).
So keep on using your Djinni's special abilities until you finally have enough
on standby to use four level 4 summons. Remember to concentrate the attack on
Saturos. A few more attacks after that and he should go down. Now you just
have to deal with Menardi. She won't have that much HP(because of the summons
you used) so just do regular attacks and remember to heal. After that you get
really happy and say " Yay I finally beat the game!"........ NO. just NO. Your
characters will get happy to until suddenly Saturos lights the light house(
c'mon you knew it was gonna happen) Then somehow him and Mernardi fuse into a
big ugly rabid Dragon. Just use the same tactics and you should beat him."

From Syk0224@aol.com:
"This may vary from other people's strategies, but when I used this one, I
beat it easily:
First off, put all the djinn on standby, except for Granite, Flash, and any
other djinn you would like to use in battle. (only set up to 3 djinn for each
person, because the summon would be weakened, if you have all of them--28
djinn total). Then, in the first round of attacks, use Granite and Flash.
Then, tell Ivan to use djinn or summon Thor. Definitely, and I mean
DEFINITELY, summon Boreas.
Second round of attacks
Tell Isaac to heal whoever needs healing, (Probably Ivan.) Garet--Summon
Meteor. Ivan--summon Thor or cast most powerful spells. Mia--aid in healing.
Third round of attacks
Tell Isaac to continue healing, but if everyone has enough HP, summon
Judgment. (And no, judgment is not spelled wrong!!) Garet--Same as b4. Ivan--
Cast most powerful spell. Mia--if has enough djinn, use Wish or Wish Well on
party often.
Fourth round of attacks, and so on (press A and watch the pretty colors)
OK, now you have it sort of easy, unless the dragon keeps using Outer Space.
Isaac--Use djinn often to put in Standby, and cast most powerful spells.
Garet--Same as Isaac.
Ivan--Same as Isaac.
Mia--Use Wish Well often, cast most powerful spells.
Last few attacks
Now, you should be low on PP. Use the items to regain PP. Everyone should do
the same things as before, and if a lot of the djinn are on Standby, SUMMON!!
The Fusion Dragon should collapse soon, and watch the close-to-ending
cinematics...
"